November 20, 2008 It’s back on the horse for Astronaut Heidi Stefanyshyn-Piper after Tuesday's accidental loss of a tool bag containing two high tech grease guns and some cloth wipes to use on a stuck set of solar panels on the International Space Station. She heads out again on Thursday. If you want to trace all the items lost on spacewalks, you’d have to go back to NASA’s first one in 1965.

Astronaut Ed White made the first U.S. spacewalk in 1965 on Gemini 4. He also made the first EVA boo-boo by losing a silvery glove which drifted away from his space capsule.  Astronaut Mike Collins followed that up by losing a camera on his first space flight aboard Gemini 10 following his spacewalk in 1966. Since then, pliers, screws, and a collection of other objects have eluded astronauts floating in heavy spacesuits. And that doesn’t even include objects deliberately “chucked” out into space like a used Russian made Orlan suit that was stuffed with batteries and radio transmitters before being discarded to burn up in the atmosphere. Ham radio operators and students listened for signs from “Mr. Smith”, pictured to the left, until he incinerated. Heidi Piper said he planned to press on following her mishap. Grace under pressure to be sure.

On the book front…

Fans of the Bob Edwards Show on Sirius/XM can tune into his program this weekend for a show on the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour. Bob and I talked about my book “Final Countdown” and NASA’s ups and downs over the years.

More to come...

ISS photo courtesy of NASA